There is a clear distinction (at least in the linguistics field) as to what constitutes a language.
All you computer heads know about grammars -- context free, the chomsky hierarchy, etc. And you know these grammars are defined by a couple of things, one being the alphabet of symbols and the rules for rewriting.
Having reintroduced that into the discussion, the essence which makes spanish spanish (or catalan or hispanic, or whatever) are the rules. And changing rules takes more than a few measily tech words. The French have tried in many instances to stop the influx of English into their languages without any solid intentions.
But what are they really trying to stop? Do they fear increasing the size of their fat dictionaries or do they suppose they might have to rewrite children grammar books? The two are distinct, and for anyone to suppose that one can clamp down change in the grammar area is pure lunacy.
So what if a few words become part of your vocabulary? Its similar to some Texan using some crazy talk I, as Jersey bred, would consider foriegn (and I suppose this holds both ways). Yet he will be using structure in his sentences similar to mine (hopefully) so that we can at least know that we have no clue what the 'question' or the 'subject' of the sentence is, etc. So give up this struggle for purity of a language. There are other things to spend our time on, other than something which is intractable (at least so far as there has been no acceptable formalization for the grammar of each and every language) and against the idea of natural language change through time.
Just to be sure I am not passing judgement on the activities of students at the university, but I can understand if someone does based on this peculiar name.
I am a fan of the civilization and civilization 2. I loved alpha centuari. But I must ask, considering alpha centuari was developed by firaxis, and firaxis is working on civilization 3 (reynolds has said it himself), does this news bode well for a fairly immediate port of civ 3 to linux? Alpha centuari has been out for quite a while (i would guess a year if not more) and only now is being ported. So close to a two year gap is pretty bad for something like civ3 (something i've waited for quite a while). I've not bought any games for linux, but if civ3 arrived promptly after the windows release I would be willing to purchase the linux version instead (otherwise i'll be booting into windows very regurly). A second question i have for this forum is what about Age of Empires 2?? Yeh its a microsoft published game. Yeh its directx 6. But hell its a great game and I would think it would be a great addition. If someone can convince Ensemble Studios (are they owned by MS?) to let it be ported that would rock. This is a dream I know. Finally, are games really a good thing to have in linux? My personal opinion is sure, I would love to have games in linux. Just like I would like to have a fast and powerful desktop environment, as well as a great office suite. Right now the only games I do have are doom and heretic, which are mighty cool, but I would really love to get the classics like warcraft and warcraft 2 (blizzard help!)
I don't consider myself a power user... but the appeal of two cpus helping my cause is too tempting. With prices of lower end Athlons at an attainable level, I can see myself very happy with a dual athlon system. As jabber stated, motherboards are what's holding athlon's momentum from booming... but again I really wish there was a dual board out sooner rather than later (Tyan?? Asus?? are you guys listening?).
I had the opportunity to listen to a speech by a Microsoft employee once. During the speech he made it crystal clear that there is an advantage to putting out incomplete products. There is some truth to this, as in the commercial world if you are late with a product you lose customers. But then again what's driving those customers to that new product? New features the software developer wants to put in or the customer asks for? Or is it improved stability that the customer has been complaining about since the last release? Fortunately, I've had the ability to use open source software and which is rather stable in most cases.
AMD i'm hoping you are still pushing to put out those mobile k6-3s. Along with a SMP athlon system, i want nothing more than a very efficient fast cheap notebook (only other option is the cool as hell, yet expensive, g3 powerbooks). Anyone else think a k6-3 mobile would sky rocket AMD sales in the portable market (though k6-2s seem to be doing great already)
I might be just missing something, but what processor is in the visor handheld? is it the same from the pilot? i checked out the site but didn't seem the find it.
I'm inclined to suspect that sometime in the future (say 10 years, no intelligent way of rationalizing when this will happen accurately). Here's how it'll go down: (1) An oligarchy (?) is elected (forced) to rule the world. Every country is commanded by this group of highly intelligent, learned, and rather average people. Its composed of mostly college professors on sabbatical, historians, nobel prize winners, and others from important backgrounds. (2) The first law that is imposed is a world-wide respect for intelligence (3) A high school student in some lame ass town in the mid-west city thinks this is infringing on his justice, and starts a small riot during lunch period. (4) The news is carried world-wide. (5) An impassioned majority of "stupid people" demand their freedom to be "not intelligent", as intelligence is dependent of perspective (like tallness, strength, and death). They form an anti-government organization, calling themselves "Stupidity has intelligence too". (6) S.H.I.T. is a world-wide power within days, though being mainly stationed in the South of the North American Continent. (7) In no more than a few weeks, the society that the world government had envisioned is destroyed. Schools are burnt. Books are thrown back into the sea, from whence they came. Worst of all, every college student must return home to their parents. (8) Several years later, once the revolutionaries realize they don't have much money, and have grown fat and lazy (again), people begin to reorganize government. The model for this government is taken from an old episode of a popular T.V. show that aired sometime between now and then. The world is at peace again.
Thats the summary of the victorious rise of S.H.I.T. We should all remind ourselves that someday, when we least expect, some stupid ass mofo is gonna beat us down with a over-sized mallet. If thats not enough reason to eradicate all of them now, i don't know what is...
I'm still waiting for mini discs to get to the level cd players were a few years back (when i picked up my sony after prices began to drop). I think a mini disc recorder will be a great choice for myself as it provides me with enough room for a full length album, gives me the ability to record, is small as hell, and comes in nice colors. you can get a cheap one nowadays for near $150, though i'm hoping the higher end models come down a bit around to the range of $200 from the $300-350 mark they are at now (esp the sharp 831). I think for someone who wants a portable mp3 player, this is a good choice (if you can stand having a limited amount of space for the audio). moving mp3s to mini discs is supposedly easy (esp if you have a digital out on your sound card). titling can be done, which seems a nice addition. i'm strongly considering the pine mp3/cd player, but as it stands, for portable needs a mini disc seems much more appealing (also considering it would be better for someone on the go, say running). mini discs have caught on in japan, and from what i hear in other parts of the world. mini discs in america might not explode until the price becomes competitive with cd players and the portable mp3 players (though they too are overpriced). but i'm here eagerly waiting till that day arrives.
i feel frustrated when i see the ridiculous amount of cash that goes into NASA as compared to other science pursuits.
We've got a planet full of people decaying from myriad of diseases. Though I admit that AIDS and cancer are well funded, I do not believe that the level of severity of these matters corresponds to their current financial piece of the american pie. I'm not a people-lover, but what i know is that we through our money down the toilet (taxes) to support a product of the cold war.
And what about other ways to spend our taxes? Our money should be funding projects here on earth. Projects to understand ourselves, how our body functions, how our mind functions, and how we think. We should be interested in what lies at the bottom of the sea, the history our planet, the history of our people. One can persume that these areas of science have been well researched, but thats persuming that we have found all the answers we need (and that is more bs). And yes.. all this scientific research doesn't have to have bring in financial success.
How is it then that so many people support such a financially wasteful cause as NASA? Part of it is a result of our american heritage. We are a people who have always wanted to test our limits, move away from stagnant society and find freedom in a new frontier. This has obviously carried over into how the population looks at space. It as if there is an urgency to escape this planet, in the hope that we will find somewhere better to live. Perhaps somewhere where all the women are blonde and tall. Somewhere that has enough resources to make a millionaire out even the humblest of men. Or just somewhere to escape the realities we've created here on earth. Whatever it is we need to realize that the fervor to test this new frontier might not be as wise as we envisioned during the cold war. We do not need nuclear stations in space to attack enemies. We do not need colonies on mars so that we can vacation there during the winter months. So stop thinking about it like that please. A second argument that might sufficiently explain why we american feel sympathetic to the NASA cause is that its a very popular science at the moment. Its popularity, a result of the national focus on the space program during the cold war, seems to distract people from scientific pursuits that are left without major support. I don't want to demean what scientific contributions NASA has provided, but to use it as an engine for popular support in science is simply saddening.
I hope people get off this pro-NASA campaign and realize what they are missing. Let the commercial pursuits of NASA (satellites) be managed by private corporations. And get NASA to be more efficient, by cutting their budget, in pursuing what matters, an understanding of space (through scientific data retrieval and observation of our universe, go FUSE!). And make the international space station what it is, "international"... there is no reason to have international presence in space when there are nations here on earth still struggling to survive on earth.
does anyone know where i can grab the qt4 mov of job's keynote this morning? i missed it and want to download it so i can view it once i get home... help is much appreciated
Speaking of laptops, what about a SPARCbook?
on
Debian Laptops
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· Score: 2
Hey, i came across these laptops on the net for pretty low price. but i'm wondering if these laptops SPARCbook GX with a 110 mHZ Microsparc II Processor are worth it. does anyone have any opinions on this??
i would probably also install linux on it, so if anyone has had experience with linux on these SPARCbooks please help.
i know the Microsparc II is great at integer performance, but pretty bad at floating point. will this greatly affect my use of it (which would be web browsing and programming)??
I've spent many hours browsing through amazon, reading reviews, getting linked to suggested authors, and reading through the recommended lists. the experience i get by using amazon is similar to how i feel when i go through a used bookstore. you really don't have to go in knowing what you want, but can just peruse the site at your own liking. though amazon isn't as an authentic experience, it does provide a very intelligent and sophisticated place to go if you're interested in books. i wouldn't want to draw conclusions, but fatbrain.com seems to be a place geared towards the computer-oriented individual. though i enjoy reading computer related text, i do also enjoy literature. and fatbrain doesn't work in that case. another thing is that i really don't buy much from amazon, probably 1/2 of the books i purchase (esp computer books) i get from asces.com (which is similar to http://www.pricewatch.com for books). usually amazon doesn't have the best deals, though sometimes it is very convenient place to go buy that next book for you library. a side note: music on amazon is bad? i'm sorry, but music on amazon is very similar to the books. i've spent time searching through there, getting cross-referenced to other musicians and reading reviews. the way they've included music in their site leaves little to be pissed off at.
i was on slashdot a little earlier today and saw a banner on slashdot advertising va. the banner had a list of people they were saying worked at va, one of which was rasterman. i had no clue he had moved to va at the time. did anyone else see this banner before the slashdot article? or was i just dreaming?
i had the same problem. i fixed it by changing that like to #include "WUtil.h" as well as the raster one to in quotes as well... after that it worked fine (i am using rh6)
well i tried to look at the README but it doesn't give step by step procedure, what should i do first with the cvs? could you perhaps give me the steps after (perhaps including before if necessary) to install the glx driver?
Did you or anyone get it to work with glx? if you did can u tell me how? did you read a howto or did you just go by the READMEs? i can't seem to get the install script with the cvs to work. also how was the performance when you did get it to work?
i picked up noam chomsky's book on east timor, i think if you really want some more knowledge of the situation in east timor (though the manufacturing consent gives you the basic story)... its a small book that won't take you more than one sitting to read
Slashdot Mirror
All you computer heads know about grammars -- context free, the chomsky hierarchy, etc. And you know these grammars are defined by a couple of things, one being the alphabet of symbols and the rules for rewriting.
Having reintroduced that into the discussion, the essence which makes spanish spanish (or catalan or hispanic, or whatever) are the rules. And changing rules takes more than a few measily tech words. The French have tried in many instances to stop the influx of English into their languages without any solid intentions.
But what are they really trying to stop? Do they fear increasing the size of their fat dictionaries or do they suppose they might have to rewrite children grammar books? The two are distinct, and for anyone to suppose that one can clamp down change in the grammar area is pure lunacy.
So what if a few words become part of your vocabulary? Its similar to some Texan using some crazy talk I, as Jersey bred, would consider foriegn (and I suppose this holds both ways). Yet he will be using structure in his sentences similar to mine (hopefully) so that we can at least know that we have no clue what the 'question' or the 'subject' of the sentence is, etc. So give up this struggle for purity of a language. There are other things to spend our time on, other than something which is intractable (at least so far as there has been no acceptable formalization for the grammar of each and every language) and against the idea of natural language change through time.
Now that's an applicable name for a university.
Just to be sure I am not passing judgement on the activities of students at the university, but I can understand if someone does based on this peculiar name.
I am a fan of the civilization and civilization 2. I loved alpha centuari. But I must ask, considering alpha centuari was developed by firaxis, and firaxis is working on civilization 3 (reynolds has said it himself), does this news bode well for a fairly immediate port of civ 3 to linux? Alpha centuari has been out for quite a while (i would guess a year if not more) and only now is being ported. So close to a two year gap is pretty bad for something like civ3 (something i've waited for quite a while). I've not bought any games for linux, but if civ3 arrived promptly after the windows release I would be willing to purchase the linux version instead (otherwise i'll be booting into windows very regurly).
A second question i have for this forum is what about Age of Empires 2?? Yeh its a microsoft published game. Yeh its directx 6. But hell its a great game and I would think it would be a great addition. If someone can convince Ensemble Studios (are they owned by MS?) to let it be ported that would rock. This is a dream I know.
Finally, are games really a good thing to have in linux? My personal opinion is sure, I would love to have games in linux. Just like I would like to have a fast and powerful desktop environment, as well as a great office suite. Right now the only games I do have are doom and heretic, which are mighty cool, but I would really love to get the classics like warcraft and warcraft 2 (blizzard help!)
I don't consider myself a power user... but the appeal of two cpus helping my cause is too tempting. With prices of lower end Athlons at an attainable level, I can see myself very happy with a dual athlon system. As jabber stated, motherboards are what's holding athlon's momentum from booming... but again I really wish there was a dual board out sooner rather than later (Tyan?? Asus?? are you guys listening?).
I had the opportunity to listen to a speech by a Microsoft employee once. During the speech he made it crystal clear that there is an advantage to putting out incomplete products. There is some truth to this, as in the commercial world if you are late with a product you lose customers. But then again what's driving those customers to that new product? New features the software developer wants to put in or the customer asks for? Or is it improved stability that the customer has been complaining about since the last release? Fortunately, I've had the ability to use open source software and which is rather stable in most cases.
AMD i'm hoping you are still pushing to put out those mobile k6-3s. Along with a SMP athlon system, i want nothing more than a very efficient fast cheap notebook (only other option is the cool as hell, yet expensive, g3 powerbooks). Anyone else think a k6-3 mobile would sky rocket AMD sales in the portable market (though k6-2s seem to be doing great already)
I might be just missing something, but what processor is in the visor handheld? is it the same from the pilot? i checked out the site but didn't seem the find it.
I'm inclined to suspect that sometime in the future (say 10 years, no intelligent way of rationalizing when this will happen accurately). Here's how it'll go down:
(1) An oligarchy (?) is elected (forced) to rule the world. Every country is commanded by this group of highly intelligent, learned, and rather average people. Its composed of mostly college professors on sabbatical, historians, nobel prize winners, and others from important backgrounds.
(2) The first law that is imposed is a world-wide respect for intelligence
(3) A high school student in some lame ass town in the mid-west city thinks this is infringing on his justice, and starts a small riot during lunch period.
(4) The news is carried world-wide.
(5) An impassioned majority of "stupid people" demand their freedom to be "not intelligent", as intelligence is dependent of perspective (like tallness, strength, and death). They form an anti-government organization, calling themselves "Stupidity has intelligence too".
(6) S.H.I.T. is a world-wide power within days, though being mainly stationed in the South of the North American Continent.
(7) In no more than a few weeks, the society that the world government had envisioned is destroyed. Schools are burnt. Books are thrown back into the sea, from whence they came. Worst of all, every college student must return home to their parents.
(8) Several years later, once the revolutionaries realize they don't have much money, and have grown fat and lazy (again), people begin to reorganize government. The model for this government is taken from an old episode of a popular T.V. show that aired sometime between now and then. The world is at peace again.
Thats the summary of the victorious rise of S.H.I.T. We should all remind ourselves that someday, when we least expect, some stupid ass mofo is gonna beat us down with a over-sized mallet. If thats not enough reason to eradicate all of them now, i don't know what is...
I'm still waiting for mini discs to get to the level cd players were a few years back (when i picked up my sony after prices began to drop). I think a mini disc recorder will be a great choice for myself as it provides me with enough room for a full length album, gives me the ability to record, is small as hell, and comes in nice colors. you can get a cheap one nowadays for near $150, though i'm hoping the higher end models come down a bit around to the range of $200 from the $300-350 mark they are at now (esp the sharp 831). I think for someone who wants a portable mp3 player, this is a good choice (if you can stand having a limited amount of space for the audio). moving mp3s to mini discs is supposedly easy (esp if you have a digital out on your sound card). titling can be done, which seems a nice addition. i'm strongly considering the pine mp3/cd player, but as it stands, for portable needs a mini disc seems much more appealing (also considering it would be better for someone on the go, say running). mini discs have caught on in japan, and from what i hear in other parts of the world. mini discs in america might not explode until the price becomes competitive with cd players and the portable mp3 players (though they too are overpriced). but i'm here eagerly waiting till that day arrives.
We've got a planet full of people decaying from myriad of diseases. Though I admit that AIDS and cancer are well funded, I do not believe that the level of severity of these matters corresponds to their current financial piece of the american pie. I'm not a people-lover, but what i know is that we through our money down the toilet (taxes) to support a product of the cold war.
And what about other ways to spend our taxes? Our money should be funding projects here on earth. Projects to understand ourselves, how our body functions, how our mind functions, and how we think. We should be interested in what lies at the bottom of the sea, the history our planet, the history of our people. One can persume that these areas of science have been well researched, but thats persuming that we have found all the answers we need (and that is more bs). And yes.. all this scientific research doesn't have to have bring in financial success.
How is it then that so many people support such a financially wasteful cause as NASA? Part of it is a result of our american heritage. We are a people who have always wanted to test our limits, move away from stagnant society and find freedom in a new frontier. This has obviously carried over into how the population looks at space. It as if there is an urgency to escape this planet, in the hope that we will find somewhere better to live. Perhaps somewhere where all the women are blonde and tall. Somewhere that has enough resources to make a millionaire out even the humblest of men. Or just somewhere to escape the realities we've created here on earth. Whatever it is we need to realize that the fervor to test this new frontier might not be as wise as we envisioned during the cold war. We do not need nuclear stations in space to attack enemies. We do not need colonies on mars so that we can vacation there during the winter months. So stop thinking about it like that please. A second argument that might sufficiently explain why we american feel sympathetic to the NASA cause is that its a very popular science at the moment. Its popularity, a result of the national focus on the space program during the cold war, seems to distract people from scientific pursuits that are left without major support. I don't want to demean what scientific contributions NASA has provided, but to use it as an engine for popular support in science is simply saddening.
I hope people get off this pro-NASA campaign and realize what they are missing. Let the commercial pursuits of NASA (satellites) be managed by private corporations. And get NASA to be more efficient, by cutting their budget, in pursuing what matters, an understanding of space (through scientific data retrieval and observation of our universe, go FUSE!). And make the international space station what it is, "international"... there is no reason to have international presence in space when there are nations here on earth still struggling to survive on earth.
please just think about it
does anyone know where i can grab the qt4 mov of job's keynote this morning? i missed it and want to download it so i can view it once i get home... help is much appreciated
Hey, i came across these laptops on the net for pretty low price. but i'm wondering if these laptops SPARCbook GX with a 110 mHZ Microsparc II Processor are worth it. does anyone have any opinions on this??
i would probably also install linux on it, so if anyone has had experience with linux on these SPARCbooks please help.
i know the Microsparc II is great at integer performance, but pretty bad at floating point. will this greatly affect my use of it (which would be web browsing and programming)??
I've spent many hours browsing through amazon, reading reviews, getting linked to suggested authors, and reading through the recommended lists. the experience i get by using amazon is similar to how i feel when i go through a used bookstore. you really don't have to go in knowing what you want, but can just peruse the site at your own liking. though amazon isn't as an authentic experience, it does provide a very intelligent and sophisticated place to go if you're interested in books. i wouldn't want to draw conclusions, but fatbrain.com seems to be a place geared towards the computer-oriented individual. though i enjoy reading computer related text, i do also enjoy literature. and fatbrain doesn't work in that case. another thing is that i really don't buy much from amazon, probably 1/2 of the books i purchase (esp computer books) i get from asces.com (which is similar to http://www.pricewatch.com for books). usually amazon doesn't have the best deals, though sometimes it is very convenient place to go buy that next book for you library. a side note: music on amazon is bad? i'm sorry, but music on amazon is very similar to the books. i've spent time searching through there, getting cross-referenced to other musicians and reading reviews. the way they've included music in their site leaves little to be pissed off at.
i was on slashdot a little earlier today and saw a banner on slashdot advertising va. the banner had a list of people they were saying worked at va, one of which was rasterman. i had no clue he had moved to va at the time. did anyone else see this banner before the slashdot article? or was i just dreaming?
i had the same problem. i fixed it by changing that like to
#include "WUtil.h"
as well as the raster one to in quotes as well... after that it worked fine (i am using rh6)
well i tried to look at the README but it doesn't give step by step procedure, what should i do first with the cvs? could you perhaps give me the steps after (perhaps including before if necessary) to install the glx driver?
thanks
Did you or anyone get it to work with glx? if you did can u tell me how? did you read a howto or did you just go by the READMEs? i can't seem to get the install script with the cvs to work. also how was the performance when you did get it to work?
-ien
i picked up noam chomsky's book on east timor, i think if you really want some more knowledge of the situation in east timor (though the manufacturing consent gives you the basic story)... its a small book that won't take you more than one sitting to read